


Second First Meeting

by peskylilcritter



Series: Journey to Tattooine AU [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:29:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7763233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peskylilcritter/pseuds/peskylilcritter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Obi-Wan hands Luke over to Beru and Owen, and genuinely expects not to see him for many years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second First Meeting

He spends the entire journey to the Lars homestead considering how much to tell them.

He really wants to stick with an absolute minimum, for a variety of reasons, most of which he is not thinking about, but he keeps coming back to the fact that incomplete information has nearly killed him far too often. And there’s no way two Force-blind civilians are as capable of dealing with that as he is.

He wonders if he shouldn’t do with Luke what he did with Leia; adopted and protected even by her family’s name.

Leia is not a Skywalker. Maybe Luke shouldn’t be either.

In the end, he takes the middle path.Tells them about Anakin’s fall and Padmé’s death and the clones and very little else. Certainly not about Yoda, or Leia, and almost nothing of himself.

They listen in silence and then he puts Luke into Beru’s arms, smiles at him one last time and walks into the desert.

Luke tries to reach for him through the Force and begins to cry when Obi-Wan turns him away.

He doesn’t turn back.

***

Beru is busy hissing bad words at the stove and Owen isn’t home.

Luke is playing until he realizes there’s a- not a sound or a smell but something he can hear and smell anyway. He goes looking for it.

When he reaches the wall he knows it’s not inside his home.

Beru is still busy and he doesn’t want to bother her so he takes one of the water pouches and goes outside.

Theres no wind today and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a storm. He starts walking into the desert.

He walks for a very long time, and when he’s almost ready to sit down in the sand and cry until Beru comes, he sees a house over the next dune.

The weird feeling is coming from the house.

He drinks the last of his water and walks on, faster now that he’s certain of his destination.

***

The sound breaks his concentration and he’s showered in the sand he was practicing with.

It gets into his eyes so Obi-Wan extends his sense of the Force to be able to defend himself against the intruder.

There’s just one, very small and-.

“What are you doing here?” he asks Luke.

“I found you,” Luke says, as if that makes sense.

“I suppose you did,” Obi-Wan says, dry as the sand he’s still trying to get out of his eyes. “However, as I’ve taken great pains to be hard to find, I’d like to know how. and why.”

If he squints hard he can see Luke, a blurry figure almost invisible against the sand in his beige clothes.

Luke shrugs. “There was a weird feeling. I wanted to know what it was so I went looking. And I found you!“

Luke sounds terribly cheerful and proud of that last sentence.

Obi-Wan sighs. “We’d best go inside and tell Beru and Owen where you are.”

***

Luke is asleep.

It’s been years since Obi-Wan has seen Luke and it’s hard to reconcile this boy with the tiny baby Obi-Wan brought to Tattooine unless he closes his eyes and looks at him only with the Force. (Look is the wrong word but it’s the closest approximation he can think of.)

Nobody at the Lars homestead answered his call so Obi-Wan left a message and told Luke he’d take him home the next day.

He knows he’s not going to get any sleep tonight and he can’t sit still long enough to meditate. This whole situation is terribly unsettling and Obi-Wan can’t figure out why.

Luke mumbles something and turns over.

Obi-Wan watches and thinks about the first time Luke smiled. It’s been almost eight years since then. There’s been a lot of smiles and sleepy mumbling Obi-Wan has missed seeing.

Of course, he’s also missed everything else.

He turns away and walks into the kitchen, intending to make some tea, but he ends up just standing there staring out the window.

What is he doing? What is he supposed to do? Obi-Wan leans forward over the counter and tries to steady his breathing. The serenity he’s regained over the years was hard-earned and he can’t afford to lose it now. He’s never been this-

He’s never been this brittle before; never cracked this easily.

What the fuck is he going to do now?

**Author's Note:**

> i am so unsure about this one. not sure why, might just be my insecurities being assholes. u know how it is.


End file.
